Bathroom - Phase 1

Saturday we started our biggest home improvement project. I shouldn't really say "we" because I just took pictures and sat upstairs with butterflies in my stomach. I grew up in a house that was forever changing and being remodeled... but for some reason it was different to have people here ripping out walls and chattering. It was a good feeling... because I am so excited to have a real bathroom!!! Our home has two bathrooms... two very tiny bathrooms. So small that it is hard for both of us to brush our teeth at night. Actually we had to stop brushing our teeth together because one morning we were and Jesse spit... and for some crazy reason I looked down and saw his spit and it sent me over the edge. I was instantly gagging and couldn't stop. I ran to the kitchen sink and well... lost it! Jesse started laughing at me and wanted to know why that grossed me out? I have no idea... I'm extra gaggy in the mornings and have a hard enough time not losing it when I am by myself brushing my teeth and then to see his spit! Ick! I think it may have a little something to do with Blueberry... but I'm not sure. Anyone else have trouble brushing their teeth while pregnant?

Sorry... I get side tracked real easy these days. Back to the bathroom!!

We eventually want to gut both bathrooms but we decided to start with the downstairs bathroom first. It was the worst out of the two. Now I will confess that I never even cleaned this bathroom when we moved in because I was too grossed out. And it wasn't really dirty gross... it was just old and felt like a campground bathroom to me. Like if I ever used the shower I would wear my flip flops because I wouldn't want my feet to touch the cement.... a campground bathroom!! I just closed the door and ignored it. Oh and there was a big spider in there!!! And Jesse would not kill it!!!!! So I was for real was not going in there and keeping the door shut! The only person who ever used this bathroom was Jesse's brother Jerry. Why? I have no idea - he is a boy and doesn't really care what a bathroom looks like!!

Jesse called up his Dad and our neighbor, Dwayne, to come over for a little demolition Saturday morning. Here are some before pictures:

The hallway... bathroom door on the left and closet door on the right. Check out my lovely carpet!! Don't you love it!!? I know you are jealous! And I know you are jealous of my wood walls and wood doors... it is almost like one of those hidden rooms. ; )
Bathroom door and closet door... we want to merge these two rooms into one big bathroom. The white cable running through these pictures is my internet cable. Of course a house this old would only have 2 phone jacks... one on each floor. The jacks are both placed in the middle of the house! Hopefully during the remodel some one will work some magic and run this cable so I don't look like I'm living in my college apartment. You know what I am talking about. Those college apartments where cables and wires are running all over the place and taped to the floor.

The lovely bathroom. Now... all this stuff in here is original, because like I said... I never touched the room. Even the shower curtain is from the previous owners. Don't you love the walls and ceiling! They were smooth and shiny - almost like paneling... but for bathrooms! See my cement shower stall!!!!!!

Here is another view. We started using this shower to give Maggy a bath. We couldn't get her to hop into our shower/tub upstairs... so this was a walk in and we tricked her with Rachael Ray treats!!! Yes, even Maggy knows about Rachael Ray!! I can't help it!

Amazingly it did not take the 3 guys very long at all to demo this! The whole time they are ripping stuff out (I am sitting upstairs pretending to read... but actually listening in on their conversations) they are just a chattering. They were way too funny! They were saying things like "this guy just used what ever scrap piece of wood he had lying around to build these walls" and they would all chuckle. Then someone would comment "This wall over here is so crocked! Come see this - you won't believe it!" More chuckles! "Jesse you want to keep these fixtures?" More chuckles! "OH! He used a real piece of drywall over here on this wall!" Oh man! They were cracking me up!

I eventually had to leave but I took a quick picture as I was running out the door...

The two rooms became one! Jesse and I are still uncertain if this is big enough. We can still push that wall, on the right, out some more if we want it bigger.

Here is looking down the "hallway". They took out that end wall because it wasn't even with the other wall, this way when the builder comes in he can make the wall even. You can see my messy office way back there and part of our downstairs living room. The guy in this picture is our awesome neighbor, Dwayne, he loves this kind of work. And he has 3 garages full of tools!!

When I came home... I saw this!! It feels very funny having this all open and a toilet sitting there. All part of remodeling... functioning toilets randomly placed around.

Yesterday we went and picked out lighting, shower, tub, faucets... all the fun stuff. The store was having a sale where everything you could fit in a bag you would get 15% off. And we each could have our own bag! We were stuffing and stuffing. Then we went to pick out our shower and they didn't have it in stock and had to print me off a piece of paper and I put it in my bag and said "Jesse! I just got our shower in my bag!!" I got to the check out line and put my bag up on the belt and she's pulling stuff out and we were chatting and she pulls out my "shower" and says "You know I can't give you 15% off of this?" I started laughing and told her, but it is in my bag! Dang it... I tried!

Next phase is getting Jesse's brother in here to do some plumbing work for us. I'm going to bribe him with some Mexican food and beer... hopefully that puts us higher up on his to-do list and gets him out here quickly so we don't keep our builder waiting!!